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This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to make available high-value data sets for reuse is highlighted. The case recounts Kundra's experience at the state and local government levels in developing open data initiatives and the application of that experience to the federal government. The case demonstrates the benefits of making government data available in terms of both engaged citizens and the potential for new innovations from the private sector. Potential drawbacks of open access including security and privacy issues are illustrated. Issues related to the role of government in releasing data and the balance between accountability and private-sector innovation are explored.      

The case describes the challenges faced by Ford and other automobile manufacturers in an era of declining oil reserves and volatile fuel prices. The Ford diesel decision seems to reflect classic thinking constrained by mental models that were developed in a different world. Diesels constitute over 50 per cent of automobile sales in Europe, because fuel is extremely expensive there. If fuel gets extremely expensive in the United States, one would expect diesels to become more attractive. Yet Ford seems to be stuck in the old mental model that says Americans don't like diesels. Ford can't prove in a PowerPoint presentation that there is a big market for small diesels - mostly because there are few small diesels available to U.S. consumers. But that traps them into a position where they will never lead the industry or innovate outside of current market and technology conditions.

Cabinet Creations is a woodwork company specializing in the manufacture and distribution to retailers of kitchen cabinet doors. The owner wants to assess the company's second fiscal year of operations. Students are asked to (1) identify and record the cost of raw materials used, cost of work-in-process, cost of finished goods manufactured and cost of goods sold; (2) determine the cost of work in process, calculate partial factory overhead; (3) record the issuance of conversion of preferred shares; (4) record the declaration and payment of dividends; record the purchase and sale of marketable securities - stocks and bonds, and its subsequent interest revenue.

A critical question facing a company's ability to grow its business internationally is where it should go next. One company facing that decision was GENICON, a U.S.-based firm that manufactured and distributed medical instruments for laparoscopic surgeries. Although the minimally invasive surgical market in the United States had long been the largest in the world, international markets were anticipated to grow at a much faster rate than the U.S. market for the foreseeable future. GENICON was already in over 40 international markets and was looking in particular at the rapidly emerging markets - Brazil, Russia, India and China - as potential new opportunities for growth. This case is appropriate for use in an international business course to introduce market selection strategy. It can also be used in sessions on international marketing, entrepreneurship and business strategy.

Flare Fragrances, a manufacturer of perfumes for women, faces a growth challenge in a difficult economic environment. CEO Joely Patterson outlines two growth opportunities for her marketing staff to evaluate. One involves launching a new scent -- and possibly separating it from the trusty "umbrella brand" that comprises Flare's other scents; the other involves deepening Flare's penetration into the drugstore channel. In Patterson's view, the firm can pursue the first opportunity, the second, or both -- but it must do something . In helping Patterson to assess the opportunities, the marketing team must consider a wide range of factors, including brand management, consumer demographics, and positioning and pricing issues. The case requires students to complete a quantitative assignment as part of case analysis.Key topics include product line management, product positioning, and new product launch.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #4550.

The case is appropriate for use in finance courses but requires knowledge of option pricing, including put-call parity. Students should also have had exposure to the principles of financial engineering. Can be taught as part of a risk-management module in a corporate finance elective also is appropriate for a derivatives course from the standpoint of designing and pricing a financially engineered product. The risk management aspect of the case is conducive to productive discussion regarding the regulation of derivatives as part of the reform of the financial system in reaction to the financial crisis. This case describes a structured note marketed during the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08. The security in this case was an index knock-out note, which had been designed by Credit Suisse for the private banking market. Adopting the viewpoint of a private banking client, students must decide whether they would invest in the note based on its unique risk profile.

Spreadsheet for case UV5608

Sued for patent infringement, chemical manufacturer C.K. Claridge tries to design a settlement strategy taking into account a decision analysis of litigating v. negotiating. The plaintiffs are the patent holder and its sole licensee, who is also a CKC competitor. (This case is a revised, alternative version of "C.K. Coolidge, Inc. (Abridged)," HBS No. 607-006.)

This case builds on the A case (UV1730). Marlene Baer, the controller of Breeden Electronics, recognizes that grouping all manufacturing overhead costs together and allocating them to Breeden's two products is not very accurate. She groups overhead costs by activity and then allocates them to the two products. The system resembles a simple activity-based-costing system. This is the second in a series of three cases that can be used to explore the evolution of cost systems. The main issues of the three cases are as follows: in the A case, the company uses a traditional costing system. The main questions relate to breakeven analysis and the effect of inventory buildup on profit. The B case introduces the definition of activities, costing those activities, and computing product cost based on their use of the activities. The revised product costs are not dramatically different, but analyzing what causes the differences is important to discovering where ABC can provide valuable information. The C case (UV1734) takes place after the end of the year, when profits have been reduced by the need to take care of a growing and increasingly complex packing and shipping activity. The controller defines a new activity (order handling), computes the cost per order, and begins to revise the data on product profitability and to develop new data on customer profitability. Having discovered the high cost of handling each order, the controller now has good reason to work on activity-based management: making that process more efficient, and perhaps more customer friendly. The three cases can be used in three classes, or the A and B cases together in one class and the C case in a second class.

Dale Morse, MD, MS, could feel the tension rising in the room. He was chair of a special meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) called for July, 2009, that would make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on whether to prioritize vaccine distribution to protect the population against a possible H1N1 influenza pandemic in the fall. Dr. Morse was particularly concerned that if ACIP did not set priorities now, he and other state and local public health officials could be faced with a vaccine shortage amid high demand-a situation he described as a potential public health disaster.

Supplement for Product KEL497

Executives know that how they respond to the sustainability challenge will profoundly affect the competitiveness of their organizations - and perhaps even their survival. Yet most are struggling with how to integrate environmental efforts into their core business strategies. Many have a hodgepodge of green initiatives but no overarching vision or plan. The problem is not that they don't see sustainability as a strategic issue. Rather it's that they think they're facing an unprecedented challenge. But there is a roadmap, say authors David Lubin and Dan Esty. They argue that sustainability is a "megatrend," a transformative change in the competitive landscape - like the rise of the quality movement in the 1970s and IT in the 1980s and 1990s - whose course can be predicted. By understanding how firms won in prior megatrends, executives can craft the strategies and systems they'll need to gain advantage in this one. The key: Companies that pulled ahead in prior megatrends developed early capabilities in leadership, tools and assessment methods, strategy development, management integration, and reporting and communication.

Practically every company these days has some form of program designed to nurture high-potential employees. But a recent study by the Corporate Executive Board demonstrates that nearly 40% of internal job moves made by people identified by their companies as "high potentials" end in failure. Disengagement within this cohort of employees also is remarkable: One in three emerging stars reported feeling disengaged from his or her company. Even more striking, 12% of all the high potentials in the study said they were actively searching for a new job-suggesting that as the economy rebounds and the labor market warms up, organizations may see their most promising employees take flight in large numbers. Why do companies have so much trouble bringing along their next generation of leaders? The Corporate Executive Board's research showed that senior managers make misguided assumptions about these employees and take actions on their behalf that actually hinder their development. When dealing with high-potential employees, firms tend to make six common errors: assuming that all of them are highly engaged, equating current performance with future potential, delegating the management of high potentials down in the organization, shielding promising employees from early derailment, expecting stars to share the pain of organization-wide cutbacks, and failing to link high potentials and their careers to corporate strategy. These mistakes can doom a company's talent investments to irrelevance-or worse.

Generation X employees will bring a new sensibility to the leadership of corporations, precisely because they are broadly dissatisfied with corporate life. Alternative thinkers with a strong streak of realism, they're ready to take charge-by leading differently. Gen Xers grew up during times of major restructuring, and many of them reject status-quo definitions of success, such as climbing the corporate ladder, in favor of work/life balance. This point of view equips them to engage in five context-creating leadership activities that are well suited for today: fostering collaborative capacity; asking compelling questions; embracing complexity and welcoming disruptive information; actively shaping corporate (collective) identity; and appreciating diversity. Xers may feel like underappreciated workhorses, squeezed between two much larger cohorts: Baby Boomers and the twenty-something members of Generation Y. And they worry that management jobs will skip a generation because Boomers and Gen Y share a natural kinship. But if we give them the chance to lead as their time arrives, their affinity for realism over idealism will serve modern corporations extremely well.

The makeup of the global workforce is about to undergo a seismic shift. In four years, Millennials-the people born between 1977 and 1997-will account for half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute the majority. That shift may sound daunting to the managers charged with coaching these young workers, who have a reputation for being attention sponges. However, recent research into the varying expectations and needs of employees across four generations, involving 2,200 professionals, offers a more nuanced view of Millennials and reveals several resource-efficient ways to mentor them: reverse mentoring, group mentoring, anonymous feedback, and microfeedback. Using such innovative approaches, companies can give Millennials the guidance that they need-and that they want immediately-without having their experienced managers spend all their time coaching.

You've been ordered to reduce overhead by 10%, 20%, or even (wince) 30%. How do you do it? First, don't expect to reach your target with a single big idea; you'll need a combination of 10 or more separate actions. Second, match the kinds of opportunities you examine and implement to the degree of cost-reduction required. To cut 10%, use an incremental approach-for instance, reduce spending on department management, hold down pay increases, and repropose previously rejected cost-saving ideas. To get to 20%, think in terms of redesign or reorganization. Strive to eliminate any work for which the cost exceeds the value. This will involve changes in process, mind-set, and how departments serve one another. Finally, to reach 30%, you'll need to broaden your perspective even more. For example, try coordinating parallel activities in the organization, doing away with low-value meetings and forums, and eliminating entire programs.

Surprisingly, your best tool for getting customers to see beyond price may be the price itself. New research finds that four pricing moves in particular can cause buyers to stop treating your offering as a commodity and instead consider its quality and relevance to their individual needs. You can change the basis of your pricing structure, as Goodyear did when it priced tires according to how many miles they would last. You can stimulate curiosity with willful overpricing, as Burt's Bees does with its natural beauty products. You can partition a price into component charges to make customers notice a key benefit-as IKEA does by charging separately for a table's top and legs, reminding people of its useful modularity. Or you can price the options you provide uniformly-as Apple does when it charges 99 cents for any track on iTunes-so that customers simply focus on their preferences. The power of each of these strategies is illuminated by controlled studies the authors conducted to understand the link between price and customer attention.

Despite the popular image of entrepreneurs as risk-loving cowboys, the reality is that great entrepreneurs don't take risks-they manage them. The authors counsel managers to recognize that not all risks are created equal: When you're launching a new venture, first consider deal-killer risks that, if left unexamined, could kill the whole business. Next tackle the risks that could sabotage the project if it took a path you're not currently anticipating. Then focus on high-ROI risks-the questions you can answer without spending much money (but that will trip you up if left unanswered). Once you've identified the most important risks facing your new venture, manage those risks the way the best venture capitalists do: Spend a little bit of money at a time; create experiments that will test your assumptions; keep your timeline as short as you can; test only one thing at a time; and listen carefully for what an experiment's results are really telling you. Hint: You should be trying to prove that your assumptions are wrong, not simply to confirm your own biases.